Taishitun (China), July 29 (LaPresse) – Heavy rains and floods have caused the death of 38 people in Beijing and its surrounding areas. The city government reported that yesterday 28 people died in Miyun and another two in the Yanqing district. Both areas are far from the city center. Today, the bodies of four more people were found in the nearby Hebei province, according to the state broadcaster CCTV. Earlier, eight people were reported missing following a landslide in a rural area of Luanping county, and four of them had already been found dead. Severe flooding swept away cars and knocked down power poles in Miyun. Over 80,000 people were evacuated in Beijing, about 17,000 of them in Miyun. The storm caused power outages in more than 130 villages in Beijing, destroyed communication lines, and damaged over 30 road sections. By midnight (local time), Beijing had received an average of more than 16 centimeters of rain, with two towns in Miyun recording 54 centimeters. Premier Li Qiang stated that the heavy rains and floods in the severely hit Miyun district caused "serious losses" and called for rescue operations.
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